Chapter 471: I, Obito Uchiha, Will Never Betray The Association Or Kill My Companions!

When they had first entered the academy, Shinichi had merely been that strange boy from the neighboring class who ran laps around the training grounds every day carrying a huge boulder on his back. He worked incredibly hard, but he was undeniably strange.

Later, he defeated Kakashi, the genius whom Obito had always considered unbeatable, and the strange boy became the genius Shinichi.

After that, news from the battlefield continued to arrive. He cracked Chiyo’s poison techniques, captured the Village Hidden in the Sand’s command banner, shattered the third Raikage’s ultimate shield, and carried out a series of deep raids into the Land of Lightning.

Every report made Obito’s blood boil with excitement, and he suddenly realized that the peer who had entered the academy the same year as he had, the one he had once casually passed in the hallway, had already become someone whose name the entire Shinobi World would remember.

At the same time, Obito increasingly felt that the distance between himself and that person had grown so vast that even feelings of admiration or jealousy seemed almost laughable.

But what truly made Obito realize from the bottom of his heart that this person was different was that banquet, where Shinichi stood at the center of the crowd and declared, "Ninjas shouldn’t merely be tools for killing," and "The world shouldn’t be like this."

Even now, Obito still remembered how, after hearing those words, he remained dazed for a long time.

For the first time, he felt that someone had taken all the confused thoughts buried deep inside him, the ones he had never known how to express, and explained them one after another in simple, understandable language.

From that day onward, he eagerly anticipated the world Shinichi had described: A tomorrow no longer filled only with war and hatred, and more than that, he hoped to become one of the people contributing, however insignificantly, to making it a reality.

And Shinichi had never been someone who merely talked. There was the Rinkai City Convention, hybrid rice, the three Light Waters currently being developed within the association, and the antibiotic called penicillin, which was said to be able one day to be mass-produced and become affordable even for ordinary people.

Step by step, Shinichi was building that beautiful new world, leading all of them forward toward the bright future that had once existed only in the young man’s words.

Without realizing it, Shinichi’s figure had grown taller and taller in Obito’s heart, earning ever greater trust. Although they were the same age, Shinichi Higashino had gradually become the person Obito respected most in the world, surpassing even his own teacher, Minato Namikaze.

Unfortunately, Obito still didn’t understand what the term "Ideological mentor" meant. Otherwise, he would have realized that Shinichi had long since become the teacher of his spiritual world.

His values, his passions, his judgment of the world, and every vision he held for the future would all, without his noticing, be guided by that man.

It was just impossible to know how long Shinichi Higashino’s place as Obito Uchiha’s ideological mentor would last.

Would that respect one day be shattered by something else?

"Hmph! I’d never betray the association, and I’d never kill my companions!" Obito inexplicably repeated once more, as though trying to smash away the unease that had just been stirred within him together with those words.

Then he suddenly sprang to his feet, shoved the window open, leaned his head outside, and shouted into the silent night sky.

"I, Obito Uchiha! As a member of the Ninja Way Origins Research Society! Will dedicate my entire life to the great mission of liberating ninjas and restoring them to their true essence! I will never betray the association! I will never kill my companions!"

His voice was so loud that it echoed throughout the entire street. After shouting those words, Obito felt as though the inexplicable heaviness that had weighed on his heart all evening had finally dispersed, leaving his whole body noticeably lighter.

"Well said, Obito!"

Just as he was about to pull his head back inside and close the window, a deep voice came from downstairs.

Startled, Obito looked down and saw the two Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force officers, Uchiha Honta and Uchiha Toyoda, standing below with their arms folded, looking up at him.

Just as Obito was about to greet them, Uchiha Honta spoke first with a stern expression.

"However, if you keep shouting like this, we’ll have to arrest you and take you to the military police on the charge of disturbing the peace."

Uchiha Toyoda folded his arms across his chest and said calmly, "Get some rest early, Obito. It’s getting late."

Obito immediately swallowed the rest of his words, smiled sheepishly, and hurriedly apologized, "Sorry, Uncle Honta! Uncle Toyoda! I’ll go to bed right away!"

With that, Obito pulled his head back as though fleeing, then slammed the window tightly shut with a loud bang.

"That kid..."

Uchiha Honta shook his head helplessly. "I really don’t know how our Uchiha Clan ended up producing such a person."

"At least he’s full of energy, isn’t he?"

Turning around, Uchiha Toyoda resumed his patrol. "It’s a good thing for young people to have this kind of passion. The society he joined really isn’t bad, whether it’s the ideals it promotes or what it actually does. Besides, I heard the Clan Head and several elders have all expressed their support."

Strangely enough, to outsiders, the Uchiha Clan had always been known for being proud, stern, and even cold and unapproachable.

Someone like Obito Uchiha, who was sunny, passionate, carefree, and completely at odds with the traditional Uchiha temperament, should by all rights have been ostracized within the clan or even subjected to bullying.

Yet the reality was precisely the opposite. From ordinary clansmen all the way up to the Clan Head, Fugaku Uchiha, everyone doted on this lovable fool.

Perhaps, just as the second Hokage had once said, the Uchiha Clan was a clan filled with deep love; they simply had never been good at expressing it.

Or perhaps it was precisely because of that deep yet unspoken tolerance that Obito Uchiha had been able to preserve the innocent heart he was born with.

The sound of their conversation gradually faded into the distance, their footsteps disappearing into the depths of the night. Then, from the shadows beside Obito’s house, right where they had been standing only moments ago, a figure silently emerged.

A gray robe, monastic garments, and an indifferent face; it was none other than Madara.

He glanced at the window that had just been shut, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint smile.

Corrupting people’s hearts? Reversing cause and effect?

Junior brother Genjo... I merely intend to let this child see the true face of this world.

To let him understand that not everything in this world is as warm as he believes, that not everything will unfold the way Shinichi Higashino said today. As for what choice he makes after seeing it, that will be his own decision.

This wager... I will still win!

Genjo!

Even though Genjo had never accepted his wager, Madara had already treated it as though the bet existed.

Thinking about it, it was rather strange.

Hashirama had been hopelessly addicted to gambling while he was alive. He would wager on anything and everything. Yet despite having known and fought Hashirama for so many years, the two of them had never truly gambled even once, not even a simple card game.